Noam Tibon, joining Yesh Atid, calls on Israel’s leadership to ‘go home’

By Sam Sokol 18 November 2025, 9:12 pm

Edit

Sam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid (L) welcomes Noam Tibon to the Yesh Atid party, in a press conference on November 18, 2025. (Elad Gutman)

Retired Maj. Gen. Noam Tibon will be “part of Yesh Atid’s senior leadership,” Opposition Leader Yair Lapid says, adding that Tibon will be a “central” figure in the party’s struggle against the government’s bill to regulate Haredi conscription, which Lapid calls an “evasion law.”

Lapid makes the remarks at a press conference welcoming Tibon, whom he calls a “hero of October 7,” to the centrist party.

Tibon is well-known in Israel and beyond for mounting a mission during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack to rescue his son, Haaretz journalist Amir Tibon, his daughter-in-law and their two young children from their home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz while it was under attack.

“On October 7, I saw the failure with my own eyes,” Tibon tells reporters. “I drove along roads strewn with bodies. I fought terrorists armed with RPGs and Kalashnikovs, while beside me were soldiers who had jumped straight from home without even a vest.”

He calls for “the entire military leadership, all the heads of intelligence and the entire negligent government headed by [Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu” to “go home.”

Tibon says that he is joining Yesh Atid to establish a government for the “serving public” and that he is now enlisting in “the most important mission” of his life, “saving our beloved State of Israel.”

“Today, too, we received a painful reminder from Gush Etzion,” he says, referring to the terror attack at Gush Etzion Junction earlier today. “I was the Etzion Brigade Commander and I love and appreciate the Gush and its people. The poor security situation is the reason I am joining Yesh Atid.”

Lapid says that the former Northern Corps commander brings Yesh Atid “security experience that is second to none.”

“Noam’s joining signals and symbolizes Yesh Atid’s priorities for the next government: cleaning out corruption, ending draft-dodging, restoring personal security to Israel’s citizens, strengthening the middle class and establishing a state commission of inquiry,” Lapid declares.

Describing the struggles of IDF reservists and their families, Tibon slams Netanyahu’s government for pushing a “despicable draft-dodging law” and promises to “lead a brave and determined struggle” against it.

He calls a state commission of inquiry “a security obligation, a moral obligation.”